There’s a phrase that is rising in popularity these days. It has to do with the degree to which someone is accused of being stupid … stupid to the point where there’s no sense of logic to be found in what they say or do. Those people are referred to as being a “special kind of stupid.”
Back in 2008, television series “Rules of Engagement” had Jeff Bingham state his opinion to Audrey Bingham about Adam taking off with one of his exes by saying:
That kid is a special kind of stupid.
On 2 July 2005, the author of the “Adventures In Narcissism” blog wrote about the television commercial that played during “Black Hawk Down.” She began her blog article by stating:
Calling people who are not sensible a “special kind of stupid” is one of my favorite things to do. The first time I heard the phrase, it was uttered by a stand-up comedian who was talking about dieting and how annoyed she was by the wafer-thin girls who giggle and say, “Ooops, I forgot to eat. Teehee.” Her response to this was, “You gotta be a special kind of stupid to forget to eat.“
So who was this stand-up comedian SuperKate referenced? In the early 1980s, Roseanne Barr had this to say about skinny people in her stand-up routine:
Skinny people irritate me! Especially when they say things like “You know, sometimes I forget to eat!” Now, I’ve forgotten my address, my mother’s maiden name, and my keys, but I have never forgotten to eat. You have to be a special kind of stupid to forget to eat.
Online, Idiomation has seen the aforementioned quote attributed to adult entertainer Siouxsie Q (not to be mistaken for the English singer-songwriter Siouxsie Sioux of Siouxsie and the Banchees fame).
It’s highly doubtful that Siouxsie Q spoke the idiom special kind of stupid prior to Roseanne Barr including the expression in her stand-up routine.
Idiomation therefore pegs the expression special kind of stupid to the early 1980s and attributes its creation to Roseanne Barr. Who knew?
Historically Speaking 